Improving the Talent acquisition strategies
“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people not on strategies.”
-Lawrence Bossidy, Former COO of GE.
How do we build an empire? An intriguing question that everyone who wishes to build one hopes to know the answer to. Well to start with we all understand that people are the building blocks of any organisation; there is no second thought for that. We conducted a survey to find out that where does the HR leaders of our society ranks Talent Acquisition in the business development ladder. All the respondents agreed that who to hire is a really complicated task and retaining that hire in your organisation is even more complicated. These are leaders from different industries and varied experience.
When asked “Which is the most challenging area in talent acquisition for your organisation?” Most of them replied that enhancing workforce productivity and attracting the right talent with critical skills. We may get very few candidates to choose from as skills needed are critical. Alright, we got the right candidate. But is it so? Shouldn’t we be concerned about how the candidate is performing? How can we get the best from each candidate and maximise the productivity? According to 40% of the respondents enhancing workforce productivity was the most challenging area in talent acquisition.
Being a long term process talent acquisition is now a part of more than just “hiring” the candidates. It plays important roles from hiring to enhancing workforce productivity to retaining the high performing people. Getting the best talent is what wanted by most of the organisations but best talents have the best offers in the market. And today recruiting the right talent does not only imply recruiting but also attracting good talent pools as well. And employer branding plays a major role as well. Around 64% of people responded that closing candidates with multiple offers are the biggest problem in hiring the best talents. And the second most critical issue was with employer branding according to 58% of the respondents.
Mr. Rajiv Singh, (Head HR) views, On improvement in hiring the right talent in the organisation. “The flow of communication from the hiring partner to the candidates should be such that it should reflect not only what the JD says but also the image of the company. Also, the role of external hiring partner (i.e. Recruitment agencies) should not be limited to only sourcing candidates; Also, their fathom of clients culture, process & benefits etc. will help recruiters to source right fitment for the organisation. By his opinion, external hiring partners work as company’s unofficial Brand Ambassadors. Those are selling the companies Brand & creating brand awareness among the candidates. Choosing a recruitment agency with the mature understanding of Business & Industries will ease the hiring process.”
The most challenging issues in enhancing productivity were poor performance evaluation. According to 59% of the respondents, poor performance evaluation was the top most challenging area.
Now employee is performing well. The organisation is also performing well. But retaining them is also a major part of talent acquisition team. According to 65% respondents due to unmatched career growth expectations of the employees, it is hard to retain them as well. Monetary dissatisfaction is another significant reason according to 48% of the respondents.
Taking into account the huge strategic importance of talent acquisition it is important to look for the best of the best hiring partners. According to 72% of the respondents, the most important factor driving the outsourcing of recruitment process is cost cutting. Also, availability of huge talent base containing the proper matching candidates was another significant reason behind outsourcing the recruitment process.
Our viewpoint
- Closing Candidates with multiple offers
If you know it’s the right candidate then don’t take much time to make your decision.
Often meaningful job to the candidate with lower salary will be chosen over meaningless jobs with a higher salary. Having a backup candidate also helps. - Improving Performance Evaluation
Performance Evaluation should be more focused towards business results and should bring in objectivity.
Include core self-evaluation as a part of PMS.
Don’t just give them results give them recommendations and areas for improvement as well.
- Defined Career Growth Ladder
The career growth ladder must be defined properly and it should be communicated to the employees as well.
- Choosing Hiring Partners
The hiring partners must be chosen according to previous clientele, talent base, cost, candidate churn ratio.
Outsourcing has been found best for executive level hiring.
It’s important to maintain HR relationship with the business stakeholders to match their expectations as well.
Study Conducted by –
Abhilasha Bakhla – Summer Interns – B. Arch from BIT MESRA & Pursuing MBA in HR – IIM Ranchi
Mohit Kumar Sethy – Summer Interns – B.Tech. from IIT-Dhanbad & Pursuing MBA in HR – IIM Ranchi
Supervision By –
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